CR17 shows state capture goes beyond Zuma and Guptas – Maimane

Rather than attacking one person, we must ‘destroy the system of patronage that is within the ANC’, says the DA leader.

In a video released by Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane on Tuesday, the leader of the official opposition expresses the view that the leaked emails from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s successful CR17 campaign for the ANC presidency were evidence that state capture continued.

On Twitter, Maimane posted the clip alongside a caption stating that “state capture is not an event but a system” and that the controversial Gupta family and former president Jacob Zuma “were not the first [or] last” perpetrators.

“In the recent while since we asked President Ramaphosa about a donation that he got, a lot has unfolded,” Maimane said.

“Many people are saying ‘it’s personal, it’s about campaign donations’, but I want to make a few things very clear.

“Firstly, this is about a system, it’s about the fact that the ANC decided it would capture the state, and the way to capture the state as was agreed in the National Democratic Revolution is to ensure that you deploy cadres that are loyal to the party [and] not to the citizens, is to ensure that you capture institutions of government and ultimately you capture the party by making payments to members of the party.

“This is the same movie, it’s been repeated over and over again, so when you interrogate the emails you discover the same modus operandi was in place.

“You capture members of the party by paying them off, you let them come on board and ensure that they then get rewarded financially. Others end up in government, those people are no longer loyal to the portfolio they are deployed to, they end up serving the leader or serving the party.

“And the rest is history. You can even employ people to positions of Chapter 9 institutions, etc.

“This is a dangerous trend, so if you think what we ought to be doing is just attacking one person you are wrong. We must attack the whole system. We must destroy the system of patronage that is within the ANC.

“Because if we are not careful, soon after that another faction will come on board. It will take over government, it will pay at conference a much higher fee and then after that deploy more cadres, buy judges, buy journalists, and it’s only a matter of time before our democracy is only a shadow of what it ought to be. That in fact, democracy is only but a figment.

“Fellow South Africans, this is a moment in our nation, and even on Thursday we are going to probe this matter in parliament even further because ultimately we must ensure we destroy the system, we hold people to account, we ensure that actually never and never again will we have a system of patronage repeating itself in our country,” the video concludes.

It was the DA leader who first introduced the Ramaphosa’s ANC presidential campaign into the news cycle, presenting bank statements showing a R500,000 payment from Bosasa CEO Gavin Watson to the president’s son, Andile.

Ramaphosa first said this money was for legitimate consulting work, later backtracking and revealing it was actually a donation to the CR17 campaign, something he claimed not to know at the time.

A complaint from Maimane was among those that led to Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane releasing a report finding Ramaphosa had misled parliament over the Bosasa donation. The president has launched a judicial review of the report, and has interdicted Mkhwebane from the remedial action stipulated in it until this is concluded.

Bagaetsho, state capture is not an event but a system. The Guptas & Zuma were not the first/last.